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Author Rita Plush at Friday Night Dialogues

REPORTER FILE PHOTO | Author Rita Plush will discuss her life and work at the library’s Friday Night Dialogue series.

Step out on January 25 and join Rita Plush at Friday Night Dialogues at the Library – 6 p.m. in the lower level community room — where she will discuss her new novel, “Lily Steps Out.”

A “middle-age coming of age” story, this is the tale of Lily Gold —a woman “of a certain age” with a retired husband in an empty nest, who wants more out of life after 30 years as wife, mother, nursemaid and family mediator.

She wants a job. Her journey is the journey of every woman who wants it all — love, respect, personal fulfillment and happiness.

In many ways it is also the author’s own story, which she began in 2000 as a short story about a woman whose husband has a heart attack and the effect it has on her and her adult son. But unlike Lily, Rita Plush has had more than one career, not only as a successful writer who loves her craft, but also as an interior decorator and teacher/lecturer of the decorative arts.

Her writing includes fiction and non-fiction, with stories and essays published in many literary journals, including The Iconoclast and The MacGuffin and Passenger. Her articles on interior design have appeared in Times Ledger Newspapers, distributed throughout Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens, where she lives and writes. She is the coordinator of the Interior Design/Certificate Program in Continuing Education at Queensborough Community College.

Copies of “Lily Steps Out” will be available for purchase and signing. Reservations are requested; please call 749-0042 to sign up. Friday Night Dialogues at the Library is free with donations greatly appreciated. Those attending can pick up a “Dialogue & Dinner” voucher good for a 10 percent discount off a regularly-priced dinner that night at either La Maison Blanche or Sweet Tomato’s.

Coming up: On February 1, Museum Director Terrie Sultan will give a behind-the-scenes look at the new Parrish Art Museum and on February 8, the executive director of the Longhouse Reserve, Matko Tomicic, will discuss this East End natural treasure.